Project V.

Chapter I-Back to the Lair

Most kids usually do not look forward the beginning of the school year, and don't get me wrong, I find the idea of leaving sunny and careless days behind me rather depressing aswell, but when you're used to spend more time where you study than where you live, you also start to miss that kind of second home that your school became through the years.

Usually I wake up very early, as it takes time to get to school, they don't let us take home our uniforms, so instead of putting an effort into putting on the endless layers of clothes of a classical uniform from my school, the first thing I do is checking my suitcase all over again, to make sure I don't forget anything.

I attend a pretty prestigious boarding school, so, to many people a simple suitcase having to last a whole school year might seem too little, but we actually have all our essentials already in our dorms, so I'm just bringing some spare clothes to wear when classes are over and I wanna feel more comfortable, few elegant fits and coats, and other objects that I might need.

I never speak with my parents on the train, I just listen to music, and look outside the window. It isn't a very long trip so I don't bother reading or writing in the meantime.

I check my phone, last night I was so busy preparing the suitcase that I completely missed my school's group chat coming back to life after the summer break.

Nothing much, just some classmates reserving their spots in class, and as usual, due to the fact that I hadn't seen the texts on time, I have a feeling that me and my bestfriend are going to sit again in the first row.

The train takes us a 15 minutes walk away from our destination: The pier.

The Bancroft High it's a very ancient building, it was built around the end of 17th Century, or beginning of 18th, and I believe the complex it's supposed to be baroque,with several influences from other styles.

I'm not sure what the building was supposed to be at the very beginning, and I wonder if Sir Bancroft didn't want whatever was in there to escape since he decided to build the structure on an island in the middle of a lake which is at least an hour's boat ride from the shore.

I'm honestly in love with the place, as it feels like you could be time traveling right after passing the lavish doors to the main entrance.

I know this year is going to be different, we are aware of the experiment being conducted inside our school, between us, and our part of the whole thing is being completely in the dark about what's supposed to happen.

Our principal, a direct descendant of the builder of our school, hasn't let out many details to the media or to our families, but we aren't very worried as it was assured to us the lessons are going to be as effective as they have always been.

I know we don't have a defined program yet, and that for the first week at least we will know day by day the subjects we are going to follow, but that happens anywhere, so it isn't a big deal.

But I'm guessing I should introduce myself, I'm not sure, I'm new to this diary thing but I thought it might have been nice to document on paper such a peculiar year, and I don't wanna leave out any detail.

So, my name is Clay, I'm 16 (Going on 17!), and I'm attending my third year at the Bancroft High, or as it's called here, the first year of Biennium.

The Biennium it's a two years time period, it's preceded by the Gymnasium ( first 2 years), and succeeded by the Triennium, or "Professional Years" (last 3 years).

Let me explain how this system works!

Our lessons starts at 9:00 (9 AM) and finishes at 16:00 (4 PM), they last 60 minutes and we get a 10 minutes break in the middle of the morning and an hour long Lunch Break at 12:00 (12PM), after that one can choose between several extracurricular activities, but there's also the option of not choosing any.

We have also different subjects depending on the section we're in, and sections gets classified by colour.

The Gymnasium (red) 's subjects are literature, maths, P.E, history and geography, sciences, and literature both Latin and Greek.

The Biennium (green) keeps the same subjects as the Gymnasium,but the hours are different as some more courses are added, in fact this year I'm starting philosophy, economy, law, art and psychology.

The big change happens during the Triennium. (purple) , as the classes are dissolved and recreated based on the students' university choice.

The three years are based on university preparation mostly.

The boat usually takes very few minutes to arrive, juat in time to greet my parents, and board.

"Clay!" I hear a familiar voice calling me, and immeidately start looking around for my friends, which are as usual sitting by the window, and the choice between which one I should sit next to honestly tears me apart every year.

The girl taking pictures of the light waves crashing against the boat is my deskmate, I'm going to sit besides her for the whole year, and the boy looking for whatever inside his backpack is the guy I'm having to share the dorm room with, so basically the person I'll be arguing like a married couple with for the time being.

In the end the seat gets picked for me by the boat itself, as it starts to move, having me falling onto the seat next to Evangeline, who finally looks up from her camera and smiles at me.

We spent the whole trip talking mostly about our summer, how it went, how we did...the kinds of things you tell people you haven't seen in quite some time.

Nobody speaks about the experiment, no one brings it up, so we all act like it isn't there.

Once we get to the shore of our school we all rush to the door, David being the first, even while still looking in his bag for what he had clearly forgot at home.